


Menagerie

by morrezela



Category: CW Network RPF, Supernatural RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Restaurant, F/M, M/M, Military, Multi, Politics, Polyamory, Polygamy, Restaurants, Threesome - F/M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-06
Updated: 2013-03-05
Packaged: 2017-12-04 10:49:23
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 14,670
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/709921
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/morrezela/pseuds/morrezela
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A career soldier turned political refugee, Danneel was in need of a job. Political refugees don’t have a lot of options open to them. That was how she ended up playing bodyguard to a bunch of actors in a restaurant.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Introduction

**Author's Note:**

> Warnings: Threesome sex, violence, implied threats of violence, mentions of stalking, portrayals of threesomes as a predominant relationship style, mentions of non-accepting behavior towards ‘nontraditional’ relationship styles.
> 
> This was my 2012 spn_j2_xmas gift for petite_madame. I took her het threesome pairing of J2+Danneel, added in the likes of stories including food and/or cats, and tried to throw in a little hurt/comfort. And I totally took advantage of the wildcard that was offered.
> 
> This story was graciously beta read by cappy712. As you all know, I’m a goober. Any mistakes you find are my own.

The first time that Danneel met Jensen, he was looking up another woman’s skirt. In any other world, she would have written him off as a pervert, no matter how pretty he was. But as he was simultaneously bitching about poor craftsmanship, and trying to sew tulle back into place on a ‘fallen angel’, she figured she could give him a pass.

That and she really, really needed a job. So there was that.

“Mr. Ackles?” she asked after the ‘angel’ walked away.

“Yeah?” Jensen’s eyes flickered up and down her frame in a way Danneel knew was supposed to look reflexive, but she knew an assessing eye sweep when she saw one.

“I’m here about a job interview?” Danneel forced her voice to lilt up at the end and plastered a smile on her face. She hadn’t had to interview for a job since she was seventeen and trying to get the weekend shift at the local Frosty Mug. Her skills were rusty, but having an off putting personality didn’t usually end in a good paycheck, she remembered that much.

Jensen’s face fell and regret swept over it like a fast moving cloud. “I’m sorry; we just filled the last dancer position last week. But if you’d like to leave your agent’s information with us, I’ll be happy to…”

“I’m here about the bodyguard position,” Danneel interrupted before her brain could remind her that ‘nice’ and ‘respectful’ meant not interrupting.

Jensen’s assessing gaze went almost scrutinizing as he looked her over a second time. Danneel made sure to arch a disbelieving eyebrow at him when he made it back to her face.

“Don’t tell me I’m short,” Danneel told him before he could open his mouth.

“Not top on the list of my concerns,” Jensen responded.

“Look, your advertisement said that you needed a bodyguard for your performers. If you were looking for a bouncer, then you should’ve said that. If you’re looking for a bodyguard, I can put any of those men I walked past on my way in on their asses. Including, by the way, the overly friendly giant who sent me back here,” Danneel told him flatly.

Jensen snorted in amusement. “Jared puts himself on his own ass when he’s sober. I don’t know why I let him near knives and fire on a daily basis.”

Danneel frowned. She wasn’t sure if that was a joke just for the sake of breaking the tension or an indirect slam at her stated abilities.

“So you’re from Lathen?” Jensen asked when she didn’t respond.

A short, confirming nod accompanied Danneel’s question of, “How did you know? You haven’t even looked at my resume.”

“I’m an actor, well director now. Accents are sort of in the job requirements,” Jensen told her as he rose from his chair and walked over to take her resume out of her hand. “A bit far from home, aren’t you?”

“You watch the news?” Danneel asked as she handed the papers over.

Jensen nodded and started scanning the resume. “Still, Trivan isn’t the relocation pick for most. I’m told that our ‘lifestyle’ isn’t comfortable for most.”

“Are my relocation choices pertinent to my ability to perform the duties of the job?” Danneel challenged.

Jens shrugged and moved back to his chair, sitting down in it and leaning back like he hadn’t a care in the world. “Your belief system is your own. But if you have any issues with how my performers live the personal lives it could impair your judgment on defending them.”

“Mr. Ackles, with all due respect, I just spent over a decade defending a government that was covertly enforcing a belief that I didn’t agree with. I did a good job of it. But my choice to come to Trivan when I was driven from my homeland was my own, fully informed one.”

“You’re looking for a couple of spouses then?” Jensen asked.

“That isn’t really any of your business, now is it?”

“I suppose not,” Jensen allowed. “Your work visa seems to be in order, although I don’t expect that I’d get a good review from your previous employer?”

Danneel rolled her eyes. “They were coming to bring me in for ‘further discovery’ on my filed complaints. I don’t think that they’d ask you anything other than my current address.”

“Okay then,” Jensen said as he tossed her resume onto a table covered with thread, sequins and feathers, “show me what you’ve got.”

“What do you want me to do, pushups?”

Jensen grinned at her. “No, I want you to pin me to the ground.”

“You realize this isn’t a porno, right?” It went against everything in Danneel’s honor to attack an untrained civilian, and hurting a hopefully future employer sounded like a bad idea.

“No, but some idiots who come here can’t make the distinction between stripper and dancer. And some psychos can’t grasp the idea that my actors and actresses don’t want them to show their ‘thanks’ in inappropriate ways. But most of those people aren’t going to be combat trained – just angry.”

“So if I can take you down, I get the job?”

“Well, Jared has a say in it too,” Jensen hedged.

“Do I have to pin him as well?” Danneel asked.

“Worse, you have to eat his cooking,” Jensen grinned like that was the most horrendous test imaginable.

Instead of retorting, Danneel launched herself at Jensen. A showing of her speed couldn’t go wrong, and surprise was an excellent element. After all, the man was in theatre. He had to have an appreciation for the dramatic.

Retrospect told her that trying to keep the blow soft was a bad idea. While the chair Jensen was sitting in tipped over backwards, he managed to twist his bulk and continue the roll, ending up on his feet instead of flat on his back winded.

Danneel didn’t scowl. Scowling was unprofessional, and she’d been through enough sparring sessions to know not to show displeasure or surprise. Instead she dropped low and kicked Jensen’s feet out from underneath him. He went down like a bag of sand, but grabbed hold of Danneel as he fell, throwing her backwards into the table of crafting supplies. Glitter and rhinestones rained down around them.

Jensen’s boots crunched in the sparkling mess as he scrambled back up, but Danneel didn’t make a sound as she flipped back to her feet. A ninja, she was not. But quiet could be useful, and she’d always made a point to be as noiseless as possible.

A straightforward punch to Jensen’s stomach landed, but he yanked her around into a headlock even as he grunted in pain. His forearm pressed against her windpipe, and Danneel flipped up on pure instinct. The lamp in the corner smashed onto the floor as Jensen’s foot caught it on his way down.

Before she could attempt to pin Jensen, or he could get back up again, they were interrupted with a very disgruntled, “What the HELL is going on back here?”

“Nothing,” Jensen wheezed as he clambered back to his feet, dusting glitter from his shirt front.

The scowl on Jared’s face was at distinct odds from the sunny smile that he’d flashed Danneel when she’d come in with her application. The big man looked intimidating as he strode into the room, and she dropped back into a defensive stance at the sight.

Jensen just looked pained. “Jared, watch out for the…”

But Jared was already slipping on the beads that were littering the floor. It was a miracle that Danneel managed to grab his hand and steady him, but the relieved smile that Jensen gave her made it worth it.

Jared, on the other hand, was still scowling at Jensen. “I asked you a question.”

“She’s a bodyguard, Jay. You want me to just give her a job without testing her skills first?” Jensen asked as he crossed his arms over his chest.

“I’d prefer if you not get yourself killed in the process. Or cause damage to the building either.”

Jensen rolled his eyes. Jared scowled harder.

“I can’t believe I fucking married you,” they said almost instantaneously.

In the tense silence that followed, Danneel moved back to military rest. Domestic spats were not her business. She could just leave, but as unorthodox and possibly incorrect as Jensen’s interviewing process was, he remained the only person in Trivan to not immediately turn her away.

“You care more about those performers of yours than you do about yourself,” Jared accused after a few minutes.

“Jay, we’ve been through this,” Jensen said as he pinched the bridge of his nose.

“No, we haven’t. Just hire her and be done with it,” Jared snapped as he stalked away.

Jensen sighed like the weight of the world was on his shoulders before turning an insincere smile in Danneel’s direction. “Welcome to Menagerie.”


	2. Beginning

Menagerie was the place to go for a ‘dining experience’ in Trivan’s capital city, or so the tourist pamphlets said. Jared Padalecki was some sort of culinary genius which was a draw in and of itself. But it was the dining experience that kept it full of tourists and dedicated loyalists all desperate to part with their hard earned money.

Outright plays were put on for the dinner crowd lucky enough to get reservations, but there was always some sort of entertainment going on in the main dining area. Songs, skits or dance routines were performed so that a patron could catch a show on the go without having to wait around for the next full performance to start.

But what set Menagerie apart from other restaurants was the sheer coordination of it all. The menu, drink specials and performances all had the same theme. If Jared wanted to put lobster on as the special, the entertainment would feature singing mermaids and dancing butterfly fish and a rendition of ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ where Red was a crab going through a kelp forest. If Jensen wanted to tell the story of King Arthur and his two lovers, Guinevere and Lancelot, the menu would feature roasted turkey legs and spit roasted boar.

When Danneel had read the travel brochure on it, she had been skeptical of the whole idea. It sounded schmaltzy to her. But getting turned away from a chance to flip burgers had made her standards slip. Tacky could be tolerated if it would give her money to make her low income housing rent payment.

“Try this,” Jared said as he bustled into the changing rooms, tiny ramekin dish in hand.

Over in his corner, Jensen smirked. Danneel really regretted not hitting him more when she’s had her job interview. The bastard had told Jared that Danneel would be more than happy to be his new guinea pig for new creations. Jared had taken that information to heart.

And yes, it helped that Danneel didn’t have to buy many groceries when Jared was constantly shoving food in her face. But some of his concoctions weren’t exactly palatable. If the patrons knew how many of Jared’s ‘innovative’ recipes were complete failures, he wouldn’t be heralded as such a cooking savant.

“What’s in it?” Danneel asked warily.

“Salmon, olives, pickles and capers in a white sauce covered with a thin, flakey pastry,” Jared told her, excitement clear in his voice.

The sound of Jensen’s exaggerated gagging wasn’t encouraging.

“Shush,” Jared told him as he handed Danneel a spoon.

She tried not to wrinkle her nose as she ate it, but Jensen’s predictions came true. It was a chore to swallow, but Danneel was long term military. Mess halls had given her an iron stomach.

Jared’s face fell anyway. “I can never get the proportions right,” he mumbled as he slinked back to the kitchen. If Danneel was a dog person, she’d feel horrible. Jared always looked like a kicked puppy when she didn’t like something.

“Don’t feel bad. He’s been trying to reproduce that recipe for ages now. I keep telling him that he was lied to when he asked that cook what she put in there, but Jared won’t listen,” Jensen told her.

“I’ve had worse,” Danneel said, proud of her diplomatic answer.

“So have I,” Jensen drawled with an exaggerated glance towards the kitchen.

“You never go in there,” she noted. Sure, she wasn’t paid to be curious, but it was always Jared who came to the dressing rooms or the offices. Not once had she seen Jensen go into the kitchen.

“Because we’re at work,” Jensen told her. “I don’t… I love Jay, I do. But that is his world, and we agreed that I’m too much of a takeover, control freak to go near his domain. I’d start messing with the poultry order or trying to find a better price for the shrimp. It wouldn’t be good for our relationship.”

“So you got kicked out?” Danneel surmised.

Jensen laughed, “Preemptively. He put it in the prenup.”

That was interesting. “I thought you started the restaurant together?”

Jensen’s humor disappeared. “No.”

“I’m sorry,” she apologized quickly. “I meant no offense.”

“Don’t be,” he said, “it’s natural to ask. Even rigid military types can be curious.”

“Haha,” Danneel intoned dryly.

Jensen smirked and fiddled with the faux fox tail he was fixing for next Friday’s woodland creatures theme. “Our fiancée inherited the building from her uncle. She rented it out to different ventures over the years, but none of them ever really took off. When she and Jared got serious, they started making plans to open the place together.”

“What about you?”

“I was an actor, Danneel. Pretty famous at the time, a ‘rising star’ on the scene. I didn’t have time to get involved in a restaurant beyond flashing my million dollar smile at some financers.”

Danneel didn’t mention that she’d never heard of him. Trivan was a large country, but their predominant marriage structure wasn’t the normal one for most countries. Their arts reflected their mores, and in most other countries love triangles were something to be solved not sought.

“You’re not going to ask, are you?” Jensen added after a moment.

“I can respect that it is your business the same as you respect mine,” Danneel told him.

“No, you might as well hear it from me than one of Jared’s gossiping bartenders,” Jensen said as he put the now mended tail back in the costume locker. “Her name was Sarah. She was a rising film director, producer and writer. I was her darling star that helped her take her indie film to the masses. It was a stereotypical romance, and I didn’t care. She met Jared at some big event where he was filling in for a sick caterer.”

“You weren’t jealous?” Danneel asked even though she already knew the answer.

“I was relieved,” Jensen corrected her. “I’m not a people person, and Jared wasn’t in the business. He was good looking, and Sarah swore he was the nicest guy on the planet. She wasn’t kidding.”

“Love at first sight?” Danneel guessed.

“No. That was somebody… no. But we got along from the very beginning. We’re good together. Jared’s my best friend. Plus, he’s hot as the sun – even if he is gassy.”

Danneel nodded. “He has nice hair,” she grumbled. Sure, the military life lent itself towards not being vain, but it had taken months for her to grow her hair out of its short, utilitarian buzz cut. Watching Jared flit around with his shampoo commercial ready hair had caused her to experience envy in ways she thought she had grown out of when she was a teenager.

“I’m a sucker for pretty hair,” Jensen admitted.

The only response Danneel had for that was to fluff her still short hair, making the red strands stick out in what was no doubt an unattractive manner. Jensen laughed and shook his head. “If you’re trying to seduce me, you should try Jared first. I’ve sworn off dating. I have terrible taste.”

“And Jared doesn’t?” Danneel countered gently.

“Jared picked me over Sarah. I’m biased with trusting his judgment.”

“He still went with her in the first place,” Danneel reminded him.

“But when she asked him to break things off with me, he didn’t choose her. He could’ve. I was the disposable one in the relationship.”

“How so?”

“Well, Jared is easier to get along with.” Jensen dodged the question before blurting out, “She left me on our wedding day.”

“What?”

“Sarah she… The day we were supposed to get married, she called me up and said she couldn’t do it, couldn’t be married to somebody like me. I was already at the church, in my suit and tie, and she dumped me.” Bitterness was still in Jensen’s voice as he spoke.

“That’s horrible,” Danneel noted.

“Yeah. But Jared he, he said he’d marry me anyway. You should’ve seen the spectacle we made, just the two of us. It was awkward and horrible. The wedding pictures are atrocious. I’d been crying right before the ceremony, and Jared’s forehead has all sorts of stress crinkles in it. But he refused to let me just go home. Said he’d marry me even if it was just me. I’d have been an idiot to give that up.”

“Looks like that worked out pretty well,” Danneel said. As far as she has observed, Jared and Jensen’s marriage was solid. They cared about each other even if they did, on occasion, bicker with each other.

However, Jensen only shrugged at her comment and stared at the floor. “Jared is great,” he finally said. There was honesty in the tone, but the fact that he was leaving a lot unsaid was obvious.

Danneel frowned. One the one hand, she wanted to know the story. On the other hand, if Jensen didn’t want to share all the details, he didn’t have to. But there was still the outstanding question of, “So if Sarah owned the building, how did you end up with the restaurant?”

“Lawyers. Lots and lots of lawyers,” Jensen replied before he started inspecting a raccoon costume more thoroughly than it warranted.

Time passed and the lunchtime actors bustled through the room while the early dinner crowd rushed in. Danneel did her best to blend into the background while Jensen gave out praise and critiques, adjusting lines and timing for performers who couldn’t get a skit down right or changing out a background track for a singer whose range was inhibited by her latest bout with a cold.

When all the hubbub died down, Danneel was left with a harried, but happy looking Jensen.

“You really like all of that,” she mused.

Jensen shrugged. “My happily triune marriage wasn’t the only thing that Sarah stole from me. But I get to still touch the arts, so there’s that.”

“Well, I know how that feels,” Danneel reminded him.

“I think you more than know how that feels, but thank you,” Jensen said.

Danneel inclined her head in thanks before blurting out, “I came for my cats.”

“Pardon?” Jensen asked.

“I came to Trivan because they were the only country taking refugees that would let me bring my cats. No big political statement, no need to settle down with two people instead of one. I just wanted to keep my pets.”

Sometimes Jensen could be clueless because what came out of his mouth was, “You never seemed like a cat person.”

“For months I kept thinking that the government would realize that what they were covering up was wrong. Every day I’d make my bed with regulation corners, and I’d do all of my required exercises. I shaved my head because I started running out of disposable income, and it was the only regulation style that I could do on my own. I didn’t think it at the time, but I was a pathetic mess without my job.”

Danneel shook her head in remembrance of her foolishness and strange optimism. “One day my niece showed up at my door with these two adorable kittens. She told me that I’m the only person she knew who would keep them safe. But really, they were there to keep me sane, and I knew it.”

“So when you fled the country, you had to take them with?” Jensen surmised.

“Well, it wasn’t purely altruistic. They’re cute, you know?”

“I do. Just don’t tell Jared, he’s a dog person.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When Danneel wasn’t working, she typically spent her evenings alone. While her job paid better than the fast food jobs she’d been rejected for before coming to Menagerie, she knew better than to start spending all of her money. When she fled Lathen, she’d left behind her life savings and most of her worldly possessions.

While Jared and Jensen offered a fulltime benefits package to their employees, it was hardly an amazing one. They weren’t a large employer, and a good portion of their staff was transient in nature. Jensen’s performers would book other gigs. Jared’s cooks might decide to open their own restaurants. The bartenders might go to the hippest night club for better tips. The small size of their staff meant that wages were king and the benefits package was the pauper.

Not that Danneel expected it to be otherwise, she was an educated woman. She hadn’t made lieutenant because she was uneducated or stupid. But she did know that failing to save money was a sure fire way to get herself in trouble later in life. She couldn’t always count on having perfect health or even having a job.

So when she decided to look up Jensen Ackles on the internet, she didn’t have a computer to use from the comfort of her own, small apartment. Instead she gave Mr. Fluffy and Talisman an extra bit of cat food for leaving them again, walked to the local library and waited for a teenager to quit goofing off so that she could get her twenty minutes of usage.

The connection was slow when she was finally able to log on, but Jensen was easy enough to find. The most recent articles were all about his restraining order against an obsessed fan that had gotten into the back rooms of Menagerie in order to abduct Jensen. One article went on to describe Jensen’s chronic problems with stalkers and how this wasn’t the first or even second time that he’d been exposed to such harassment.

There was another article that talked about the most recent attack and the motivation behind it. It seemed that the stalker thought that she could kidnap Jensen and ‘cure’ him from his ‘binary’ way of thinking. Her former partners had broken up with her because of her increasingly odd behavior and obsession with Jensen’s life.

Before Danneel could to any more research, her allotted computer time was up. She wasn’t disappointed as she relinquished the keyboard to a shady looking man whose eyes seemed fixated on her chest. There were better places to be, and she had questions that were best answered elsewhere.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The kitchen of Menagerie was a wonder to behold. Where the dressing rooms were only busy at breaks or shift changes, the kitchen seemed to be awash in a sea of shuffling men and women all in various chef, sous chef and cook uniforms.

The sight didn’t intimidate Danneel. She had been in far bigger crowds, and those people had been handling knives with a far more sinister intent from the people in Jared’s kitchen. Her nervousness at being in the kitchen flowed from a different river.

Talking to a man about his husband was tricky to begin with. There was no need for Danneel to attempt it while there was the slightest possibility of Jensen being within earshot. The only place at the restaurant that Jensen didn’t haunt with alarming frequency was the one place where he wasn’t allowed to go.

“Taste this,” Jared appeared out of nowhere with a spoon of very, very pink mousse.

Obediently, Danneel took a taste. “That’s fantastic,” she told him, unable to keep the surprise out of her voice.

Jared grinned in response. “I know. It’s great, right? I’m going to have to credit to my ‘master pastry chef’ though. Because I apparently can’t craft a good entrée and have a talent for desserts as well, like ability magically stops in one category or another.”

“The world of food critics gives me a headache,” Danneel admitted.

“Be glad Jensen hasn’t started talking to you about the film and television industries yet. Their politics make my head spin,” Jared said as he started bustling Danneel along back to his self-designated ‘experiment corner.’

“About Jensen,” Danneel started.

Jared’s eyebrows shot up in what appeared to be mild panic. “What did he do?”

“Nothing.”

“What did somebody try doing to him?” was the next question our of Jared’s mouth.

“Nothing, but that’s what you’re paying me to prevent, isn’t it?” Danneel asked.

“What? No, you’re there to…”

“To protect the performers from perverts and occasional weirdoes?” Danneel let her disbelief speak for itself.

She had to hand it to Jared; the man was committed to his story. His earnest head nodding was worthy of any bit of acting she’d seen happening in the restaurant. It was a good thing that Danneel wasn’t one to be fooled so easily.

“Or am I really here to keep seriously obsessed fans away from Jensen?”

Jared sighed wiped his hands on his apron. “We had some incidents a while back,” he admitted. “Jensen didn’t want to make a big deal out of them, but the normal security measures didn’t cut it. I knew it, and Jensen refusing to admit it didn’t make them go away.”

“So you tricked him by calling me protection for the performers?”

“No, Jensen is smarter than that. I guilted him like I was his mother, told him that his presence was putting other people at risk. It worked.”

“You know that I could have seriously messed up my actual assignment because you didn’t tell me, right?”

Jared shrugged and started scooping some type of seafood mixture into a split open pastry puff. “Jensen didn’t want you to just look out for his safety. If I pushed any harder, he might’ve started resisting the idea entirely.”

“Why doesn’t he think it’s a big issue? The news seems to think he’s got a history of having psycho fans,” Danneel asked.

Jared overstuffed one of the puffs and grunted in disgust as the pastry gave way, leaking seafood onto the tray. “Jensen knows it’s a big issue,” he admitted, “but my dear husband is too damn stubborn for his own good. He spends ungodly amounts of money and time on training in self-defense and combat techniques like it’s going to make him more loveable or something.”

“That was what the whole mock fight was about during my interview?” Danneel surmised.

“Yeah, Jensen said that whoever we hired had better be able to beat him otherwise we were just wasting money and time,” Jared mumbled as he shoved the ruined pastry in his mouth.

“That makes no sense,” Danneel commented even as Jared thrust one of the pastries in her hand and motioned for her to try it.

“Well, Jensen doesn’t always make sense,” he said as she bit into the appetizer. “Ever since Sarah dumped him, he’s been goddamned paranoid about his fan base. Not that he doesn’t have good reason, but still, it is annoying.”

“I thought she just decided she didn’t like him?”

Jared snorted and shook his head. “When our engagement was announced, Jensen started getting threatening letters from a guy who swore that Jensen was his soulmate, and they were meant to find their third together. Sarah got freaked out by it, and started blaming Jensen’s rising career for it. Said he was too friendly with his fans and wanted him to stop it. They argued a lot, but neither Jensen nor I thought she was going to dump him.”

“She dumped him because of some unbalanced fan?” Danneel tried to keep the incredulity out of her voice, but she didn’t quite manage.

“To be fair, there was some pretty disturbing stuff that made its way to us,” Jared hedged. “I can see where she might’ve decided that being married to somebody so high profile wasn’t going to be for her. It’s more what happened afterwards that makes me loathe her ever loving entrails.”

It was weird hearing Jared say something so hateful, doubly so when he was lovingly garnishing each seafood pastry with tiny springs of some sort of herb. The obvious thing for Danneel to do was push away her discomfort and ask, “What happened?”

“Well, our fabulous wedding photos got leaked. Of course everybody found out that Sarah had dumped him at the last minute, so Jensen’s fans started boycotting her work. In return she starts coming out with how Jensen is a closet bi-ist activist. How he believes that marriage should only be between two people, and that he is giving all sorts of money to groups trying to subvert Trivan’s marital beliefs to make us like the rest of the world.”

“But that isn’t true,” Danneel stated. She didn’t need to tack on the, “is it?” to the end of her sentence. She’d spent enough time around Jensen the last few months to know that he very firmly believed in his country’s predominant form of marriage.

“No, it isn’t,” Jared agreed. “But Sarah had contacts of her own in the industry, and Jensen and I couldn’t exactly disprove her any more than she could prove her accusations to be true. What person would want to date us then? We’re coming off a bad break-up. Even if he or she wasn’t worried about being a ‘beard’ for us, we had some serious baggage.”

“In any case, the tabloids went crazy with the story. Jensen’s movie and television offers started evaporating. It’s one thing to be in a scandalous, exclusive one-way relationship. It isn’t illegal. It can’t be. There are too many divorced or widowed couples out there. But to be subversive? That was something the film industry didn’t want to touch,” Jared told her.

“Sarah killed his career, and that was what caused him to take over Menagerie’s performance management?” Danneel asked.

“Sort of,” Jared answered. “Jensen stayed out of Menagerie throughout the break-up. I was doing fairly well at being civil to Sarah and negotiating over the operation until she started slinging mud at Jensen’s name.”

“That’s when the lawyers came out?” Danneel guessed.

Jared nodded. “She knew that Jensen had used his last movie advance to buy me new kitchen equipment for this place. It was his engagement gift to me. Most of my life savings were invested in this place, and she’d put the building into our joint names as part of our union agreement. The legal battle wasn’t pretty, but I won. I had to, for Jensen’s sake.”

“You don’t look the type to play dirty,” Danneel mused.

Jared flashed her his dimpled grin. “Looks can be deceiving.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“You talked to Jared,” Jensen accused as soon as Danneel set foot back in the dressing room that she’d left him in.

She rolled her eyes at her ‘boss’ and perched on the edge of one of the vanity tables so she could stare at him better. “Did you really expect me to not look into your story? I don’t exactly have a thrilling home life, you know?”

Jensen looked away from her and fiddled with the hem of his shirt.

“Look, I can guess this whole thing might make you feel emasculated or whatever,” Danneel began only to be interrupted by Jensen’s bark of shocked laughter.

“I don’t feel emasculated because a trained soldier can beat me. My ego isn’t that huge, nor do I have the levels of sexism required for that,” Jensen told her.

“That’s not what Jared tells me, at least not about the ego part.”

“That isn’t about ego,” Jensen retorted. “That’s about saving my marriage. Do you think that it’s easy being married to me? Fame brings baggage.”

“Being perfect brings more,” Danneel told him.

Jensen scowled at her.

“Look, you’ve gone through some tough crap, had your world shaken up and you can’t regain anonymity. I suggest you get over it. Because I’ve got to tell you that being the crazy cat lady isn’t all that it is cracked up to be,” she lectured, her own scowl in place.

The look on Jensen’s face turned sheepish. “This probably seems petty to you.”

“Spare me. I got kicked out of my homeland because I dared to put an exposing light on their human rights practices. I’d do it again if I could. My pain doesn’t make your pain invalid, and I’d be wrong if I thought it did. All I’m saying is that life goes on, but only if you let it.”

Jensen was silent for a moment before he piped up with, “You planning on going into motivational speaking?”

Danneel popped up from her seat and walked over to give him a playful shove. “Screw you, Ackles. Screw you.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Trivan’s celebration of its nationhood wasn’t held on its founding anniversary like most countries. Instead it celebrated the date of King Pedin the Wise’s marriage. Lore had it that King Pedin had long been engaged to a princess from another land, but had for longer been in love with one of his own knights. His heart belonged to both.

When the time came for his wedding, he announced that the law would change. He declared that a marriage of three was more stable and provided more benefit than that of two. Some countries decried him as a closet homosexual who was too selfish to choose his kingdom. Others would claim him to be a pervert who wanted to have rampant sex. Yet others claimed that he was sterile, and entrusted his knight with siring his heirs.

But the Trivans believed that it was a triune marriage. All three loved each other equally and shared both their beds and their hearts. Yes, it was possible that a few of Queen Magelea’s children had been fathered by Prince Consort Halvaas, but that was to be expected. They loved each other as much as they loved King Pedin.

Danneel had learned long ago not to place judgment on the Trivan culture. When she’d been in the armed forces, part of her duties had been to teach cultural sensitivity to green soldiers who had barely been away from home. Nothing started problems like having some young idiot mocking a local practice.

Still, the celebrations of threesomes were a bit shocking. The crappy television that she’d picked up at a pawn shop had provided enough programming to get her used to depictions of three-way relationships as a norm. But the celebration of it was something else to experience.

It was a bizarre combination of a lover’s holiday and an announcement of patriotism. Jensen worked feverishly on special presentations of love and romance while Jared slaved away on special menus for three that centered around the colors of Trivan’s flag.

The number of reservations at Menagerie seemed to double, and she for the first time found herself helping the security who covered the bar and restaurant proper. Celebrations tended to cause ruckuses. So did love quadrangles… or whatever it was called when your lovers left you for another, and you decided to get drunk and belligerent about it.

The annual celebration of Trivan was a little bit of both scenarios. Danneel found out that manhandling drunk, obnoxious assholes was the same in a fancy restaurant as it was in a mess hall. Jared gave her overtime, and Jensen sent her damaged clothing off to his costume tailor free of charge.

“Try this,” Jared said one night after closing. The performers had gone home, and the bartenders were finishing up their prep before heading out themselves.

Danneel stared at the tart that he slid over. Even she could see that it was made out swirls of white, milk and dark chocolate. “The symbolism is a little obvious, don’t you think?” she asked even as she took a bite of the confection.

Jared shrugged. “Sometimes obvious is good, better than oblivious anyway.”

The dessert was tasty, so Danneel took another bite in lieu of responding. Jared liked to get philosophical sometimes, and she wasn’t one to burst his bubble about it.

“What do you think?” Jared asked after a moment. The tone to his voice was off a little, and for a second Danneel thought he might be trying to ask something other than the perfection of his latest confection. But her mind couldn’t come up with anything else.

“It’s good,” she supplied, “a little dry though.”

Jared pouted before sliding the plate away from her and swiping his finger across it to pick up the crumbs. He sucked the digit into his mouth and sucked on it a moment before pulling it out with a wet pop. “Jensen said the same thing.”

“Maybe you should soak it in alcohol,” Danneel dumbly replied.

Jared cocked an eyebrow at that. “Alcohol?”

“Like a fruitcake.”

“It’s a tart, Danneel!” Jared sounded scandalized.

“Well, what tart doesn’t like a little bit of booze?” she teased as she forced tired legs to help her off the stool she was resting on. “Goodnight, Jared.”

“Goodnight!” Jared called after her as she left. He sounded strange again, but she shook it off. Working extra had clearly muddled her brain.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Danneel couldn’t remember much of the following Tuesday. She’d had a headache. They’d been atrociously busy for a weekday. She had gotten into a fight with Jensen.

How all of that ended up conspiring together for her tongue to end up Jensen’s throat, she didn’t know. The whole evening blurred together whenever she tried to think it through. The only clear points that her brain insisted on supplying were the ones where Jensen was holding her up against the wall with his mouth pressed against hers.

She vaguely recalled wrapping her legs around his waist and scraping her fingernails through his hair. There was a flash of memory about Jensen’s stubble being prickly when she tilted his jaw to make the angle of their kiss better. The was a wisp of recollection about the way that Jensen moaned deep in his chest, the way his eyes fluttered shut like some innocent maiden’s.

When Danneel had come to her senses, she hadn’t needed a mirror to tell her that her face was flushed as red as her hair. But the lighted ones in the dressing room had insisted on highlighting her appearance anyway. Flushed, with lips plumped up from kissing, her clothes slightly askew from where they should be: Danneel looked debauched. Her finally shoulder length hair was mussed from where Jensen’s large hand had curled into it.

Like a coward, she had run. She thought that Jensen had called out after her, but she didn’t dare stop to confirm that it wasn’t just her imagination. What would he say anyway? She knew he was married. Not once during all her time in the service had she been so tempted to bring shame to her uniform. But apparently hot, damaged performing artists were her Achilles heel.

The sunshine filtering in through her kitchen window made her scowl. Mr. Fluffy and Talisman were happy enough to laze about it its pool of warmth though, so she couldn’t bring herself to slam the cheap, plastic blinds shut.

Her only saving grace was that she didn’t have to decide if she was going to call into work sick or not. As great as she thought her abilities were, there was another bodyguard employed. There had to be. The restaurant was open seven days a week, and they were open for lunch through dinner with later hours for the bar.

Secure in her knowledge of not having to face the consequences of her actions until tomorrow, Danneel curled up with her cats in a comfortable armchair that she had gotten at a local pawn shop. It was clean and in good condition, but the outdated upholstery was an eyesore of a trend long since dead and buried. She immersed herself in an old book that she had read multiple times. It had taken her a while to find it. Her personal copy hadn’t made it into her hastily packed luggage, and dual romance wasn’t exactly easy to come by at the local library.

It wasn’t considered a subversive work though, and Trivan was open to encouraging their citizens to learn about other areas of the world through their literature. But dualist romance wasn’t a popular subject to read about, and copies of otherwise popular and classic books were hard to come by. Still, being unpopular meant that Danneel had managed to pluck it out of a rummage sale for mere cents. From the look of the other books in the sale, it had been assigned reading for some sort of class.

In any case, Danneel was able to put the whole kissing Jensen incident out of her head for a good, long while. The book was thick and full of intrigue. And if she occasionally superimposed Jensen’s eyes into a mental image of the hero, that was just her subconscious processing things. She didn’t need to actively think about it.

The sharp rapping of knuckles on her door around three in the afternoon startled her. The building didn’t have a security system worth beans, so the presence of somebody at her door was far from impossible. But she also didn’t have anybody that would want to visit her. Her acclimatization officer wasn’t due to meet with her for another month or so, and she was up to date on her rent.

Danneel didn’t bother grabbing a weapon as she walked to the door. She had knives stashed all over her apartment. Buying a gun was a sketchy idea when she was trying to fit in and become a good citizen, but she didn’t trust some of her old comrades to not hold grudges for being a part of what ‘ruined their country.’

But when she opened the door, Jared was on the other side. It took a moment for her to recognize him. His hair wasn’t pulled back in a hygienic ponytail, and he wasn’t in his white chef outfit. Instead his thin, v-neck sweater was clinging to his impressive chest like a jealous lover.

Which, yeah, Danneel didn’t want to deal with making Jared jealous. She could take him in a fight, no worries there, but she honestly liked the guy. Aside from feeling guilty as hell for taking advantage of his emotionally vulnerable husband, she felt horrible about betraying the trust Jared had placed in her to keep Jensen safe.

“Hey,” Jared said easily. His eyes raked over her, and Danneel felt like an idiot. She hadn’t bothered putting on ‘real’ clothes for the day. Instead she’d just swapped one pair of pajamas for the other, put her feet back into her new bunny slippers and thrown a very fuzzy robe over the whole ensemble.

“Hi,” she replied meekly, though she made herself look Jared straight in the eye. She hadn’t ever been a coward, and she wasn’t going to start now.

“So I came to pick you up for dinner. I figure we should have some time to discuss things without Jensen around,” Jared said awkwardly. “I’ve have called first but…”

“I know, I know. No phone,” Danneel said for him. She didn’t want to have dinner with Jared, but he was being fairly civil, and a public meeting was far better for the sort of discussion they’d be having than a private one. There would be less of a chance of violence erupting.

“Great!” Jared said with what looked like a strained smile.

They just stood there looking at each other for a few moments before Danneel reluctantly motioned him inside. She obviously would need to make herself presentable to the outside world, and it would be rude of her to make Jared hang out in the hallway while he waited.

The instant that the door closed, Mr. Fluffy slunk out from his hiding place to eye Jared with typical cat disdain.

“Hey Buddy,” Jared cooed as he crouched his enormous frame like he could ever crumple down to be on the same level as a housecat.

Danneel held her tongue and kept from reminding Jared that cats were not dogs. They liked who they liked, and that was that.

“I got something for ya,” Jared continued as he pulled a tiny travel container out of his pocket. Mr. Fluffy sniffed delicately at the air when Jared undid the seal on the lid, but Talisman had no compunction about leaping out of his hiding spot to practically hover over Jared’s outstretched hand.

The cacophony of sudden meowing as Mr. Fluffy got into the fray of offered treats was almost unbearable.

“What a pretty kitty,” Jared said as he dangled what looked to be a very expensive, chopped up piece of tuna in front of her cats.

“Which one?” Danneel challenged.

Jared looked up at her and smiled. “Either or, doesn’t matter.”

“Not a lot of people like sphynx cats,” Danneel pointed out. “Mr. Fluffy has been told he looks strange.”

Jared quirked an eyebrow at her in amusement. And yes, Danneel knew that she was possibly one of ‘those’ people, but she could take offense on her cat’s behalf if she wanted to do so. Besides, Mr. Fluffy was no less pretty than his seal pointed brother, even though everybody always tried to pet Talisman first.

“Mr. Fluffy?” was the only question that Jared had though, and Danneel had the good grace to flush.

“I thought it would be ironic. I was being aloof and stoic at the time,” she defended herself.

Jared shrugged and went back to bribing her cats with fish and seafood tidbits. Danneel knew a dismissal when she saw one, so she went back to her bedroom to change. She put on the interviewing suit that she’d gotten for applying to office jobs. It was the closest thing she had to a uniform. The psychological comfort and support it provided was minimal but necessary.

When she emerged from her room, hair pulled back and make-up minimal, Jared was sprawled out in her easy chair, two cats draped over him, purring like he was Bastet come to life. Well, Bastet with a dick anyway. Danneel repressed the urge to hiss, “Traitors,” at them and instead pulled her lips into a pleasant smile.

“Where to?” she asked.

“I’m thinking pasta,” Jared said as he pushed a couple of disgruntled cats off his lap. They looked peeved about it, but got over the disappointment soon enough as they clambers back into the warm spot that Jared had left.

“Great,” Danneel said. It wasn’t like she actually cared what they were going to go eat. Her stomach was in knots. But Jared would more than likely pay for the bill, and pasta was a good option for leftovers.

When they reached the front door, Jared rushed a head of her to open it, gesturing her through like a demented bell boy. Danneel held her opinion in check though. She needed to have Jared in as good of a mood as possible.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


	3. End

The place that Jared took her was out of the way, quaint and as far from the lavishness of Menagerie that it could be. The waitress was wearing blue jeans and looked about five months pregnant. It wasn’t a dive, but the entire cobble together décor said ‘Mom and Pop Shop’ loud and clear.

After they had gotten their waters and menus, Jared cleared his throat awkwardly, “So,” he said on an exhale.

Danneel put her menu down on the table and looked him in the eye.

“I, uh,” Jared cleared his throat again. “There is a job open over at Stone Light Incorporated. They’re looking for a head of security at the local office, and it pays better than what we do. I know the owner, Mark. He thinks you’d be perfect for the position.”

The dismissal wasn’t a shock to Danneel, but the fact that Jared went out of his way to find her another job was a different story. Jensen wasn’t lying when he called his husband one of the nicest people on the planet.

“I suppose that would be good,” Danneel allowed, determined to remain civil.

“You don’t have to go, of course,” Jared rushed to add. “You’ve been really good for the team, and I know that Jensen likes having you so close by to talk to. But with the circumstances as they are, I just feel like maybe me and Jensen being your employers isn’t a good idea any longer.”

“Right,” Danneel agreed tightly. It wasn’t that she was disinterested in another job. Head of security for an incorporated office probably had better benefits even if the salary was only comparable. It was just the ignominy of her dismissal that stuck in her throat.

Jared’s face relaxed into a relieved smile, “Great,” he gushed as he flipped open his own menu.

Danneel stared at him in shock for a moment before following his lead. She had expected more. Quite frankly she had expected accusations or at least a temper tantrum, maybe even tears. This though – this was all business. Jared was acting like he just signed a new lease on the independently owned parking lot next to Menagerie.

“How long will you need me to stay around?” Danneel asked after the waitress came back to take their order.

“Pardon?” Jared looked faintly alarmed by her question.

“For the bodyguarding?” Danneel clarified.

“Oh, well, the bouncers can pick up all of your extra shifts until we find a replacement. I mean, the whole bodyguard thing is pretty well fucked right now, don’t you think? It does me no good have you defending Jensen when the two of you are just as likely to fight over who is going to take the knife in the ribs from the creepy stalker.”

The bluntness hurt a little, but Danneel couldn’t say that Jared’s assessment wasn’t mostly accurate. She didn’t think that Jensen would be willing to sacrifice himself just because he made out with her, but she did know that the situation had compromised her ability to think objectively about Jensen’s safety.

“Hey,” Jared said, his big paw of a hand coming to rest over hers, “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to upset you.”

Danneel shook her head and pulled her hand out from under his. If they were any other place, Jared would be chewing her out for trying to steal his man from him.

Jared looked crushed. “Sorry,” he mumbled again.

“Don’t be,” Danneel forced the words out of her mouth, “you’re right.”

Jared hunched his shoulders and stared fixatedly at his menu. “Doesn’t mean I had to say it that way.”

“We all make mistakes,” the forgiveness was surprisingly easy for Danneel to roll off her tongue.

Jared nodded and relaxed a little. “Besides,” he said, “this way it’ll be way less awkward if you want to dump our asses later.”

In that moment, Danneel was pathetically grateful that Jared seemed to be infatuated with the appetizer listing. Mutely she shaped the words of Jared’s last sentence with her own mouth like they would make more sense. The only conclusion she could draw was that Jared was not, in fact, giving her dinner as part of her severance package.

Jared thought they were on a date - a really, really weird date where he got her a job interview with another company. Because apparently she was dating him and his husband, and working for them would be bad for that kind of relationship. Which – okay, made a lot of sense, particularly for the job she was working, but…

“Do you like Brussels sprouts?” Jared asked. “Because they have this great appetizer here where they marinate them with garlic and oil and vinegar and this secret blend of spices that I am just this close to figuring out, but Jensen refuses to let me order them anymore.”

“Jensen can be a killjoy,” Danneel said thoughtlessly, still in shock because she was apparently dating her now former boss, and nobody told her.

“Yeah, but he’s loveable that way, right? I mean, he’s hot. And he’s a really great kisser, awesome in the sack. But he can be a grump,” Jared said as he motioned the waitress over.

Danneel was too busy blushing to do much more than order a second glass of wine as Jared ordered up three appetizers and asked for another basket of bread. She wasn’t sure she needed to know about Jensen’s prowess in the bedroom. Sure she might’ve thought about it. Jensen was handsome and smart, and Danneel liked men.

But there was a difference between idle fantasy and having a guy’s significant other confirm said daydreams. Then again, there was also a difference between thinking about a guy’s pouty lips and actually making out with him.

“Did Jensen say anything?” she asked when the waitress went away, “about, you know, yesterday?”

“Aside from the fact that he thinks he scared you with his inappropriate boner and lack of dating skills? No. Jensen’s never been one for kissing and telling, so you’ll have to show me all on your own. No prior judgment,” Jared answered with a look that couldn’t be anything other than flirtatious.

“He had a boner?” Danneel squeaked. It was embarrassing.

Jared’s flirty look was abandoned for one of delight. “You didn’t notice? Oh, man, he’ll be crushed.”

The need to defend Jensen welled up inside of Danneel from somewhere she didn’t recognize. “He’s your husband,” she scolded.

“And?” Jared challenged, eyes twinkling.

“You shouldn’t be all, all…”

“Guy-ish about it?” Jared supplied.

“You shouldn’t be putting down his dick size. Men are sensitive about that,” she huffed.

“Who is slamming his dick size? I’m making fun of Mr. Suave losing his perfect record of impossible to forget, first time make out sessions. When we first fooled around, I could feel the heat of his dick pressing against my hip for days afterwards. I wandered around in a hormonal daze for a whole damned week.”

“Are you trying to make me blush?” Danneel murmured as she hid her face behind her menu.

“No,” Jared told her, “but it is a pretty side effect.”

“You’re terribly inappropriate,” she retorted, even though she couldn’t achieve a stern tone.

Jared grinned unrepentantly back. “I work in a kitchen. What more do you want from me?”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Borrowing books on emerging sexuality from the young adult section of the local library was embarrassing. Getting ones on relationship advice and curing sexual dysfunction was worse. But Danneel refused to talk to her naturalization councilor about her sudden relationship issues.

Not surprisingly, there wasn’t a whole lot available for people who had been raised in a ‘couple’ atmosphere who were trying to have a three-way relationship. Most people who came to Trivan for that purpose already had a good idea what they were looking for.

Danneel, on the other hand, had no clue. It wasn’t like she had consciously planned to start something up with Jared and Jensen. Sure, she would have been blind to not notice how good looking they both were. That wasn’t a good reason for her to try to become a part of them. But she also had noticed just how affectionate they were with each other. Past history aside, the both seemed to be perfect boyfriend material.

Even though she wasn’t sure she would even be again, either one of them would have been welcomed at her parent’s dinner table. Yes, she was closer to Jensen, but she’d also spent more time with him. And that was the other kicker – her whole social life had been revolving around her work. What if her attraction to them was simple loneliness?

On the other hand, Danneel knew that most romances started out in a workplace or school environment. They were the places that people spent the most time at, and she was fully capable of realizing that there were very few ‘ideal’ circumstance that occurred for meeting one’s significant other.

No, she had to be honest with herself, it was the fact that her ‘other’ was actually a dual package ‘others’ that she was having troubles coming to terms with. While she had spent a lot of time with Jensen, she hadn’t been secluded to him. When they physically started something up, Jared had practically broken both of his legs to find her a safe place to land if it didn’t work out.

If she was just exhibiting some need to have meaningful social contact after losing all of her established relationships, well that was normal, healthy even so long as she kept an eye on it. Both of her boys were keenly vigilant about giving her space and not pushing. It was adorable and romantic, and Danneel would be lying if she said it didn’t melt her heart just a little bit.

Jensen would stop by her place with little casseroles that Jared would make up for her. Jared would stop by with trinkets and gadgets that Jensen bought for her, but knew she wouldn’t accept from him.

While Jensen’s reputation in the film industry had been severely tarnished by slander, he still received royalty checks on a regular basis. He liked to buy fancy gifts with his money, and part of Danneel felt awkward that she didn’t have anything nearly so expensive to give back. But when it was Jared and his boyish charm and sad, pouty face giving her the gifts, it was much harder to say, “No.”

Danneel knew how to date. She even knew how to date two different men at the same time. It was the fact that both of her boyfriends were going home with each other each night that threw her for a loop.

As much fun as it was to go with Jensen to a local sports game or be drug around a museum with Jared, she could always pick out when they were missing each other. It was a curse from all the time that she’d spent watching Jensen’s every move. He had a look he’d get in his eye when he was thinking of Jared, and she couldn’t just turn that knowledge off

It was easier to be with Jared in that respect. He was funny and charming and irreverent where Jensen was sarcastic and pointed and gentlemanly. Jared was a goofball, and she didn’t know his tells nearly as well as she knew Jensen’s. But that lack of knowledge didn’t keep her from noticing how Jared’s eyes would flick enviously over the triads wandering around with their arms and hands and lips tangled together like a very awkwardly limbed insect.

They wanted to share, and Danneel needed to figure out if she could do that. So she borrowed books, and she read. She observed the triads that came into the new office building that she secured, and watched how they were together, imagining herself in their place, and learning that she didn’t find the idea quite as uncomfortable as she originally thought.

“We should have dinner at your place sometime,” she suggested one night while she and Jensen were taking a stroll through the local park.

“My place?” Jensen echoed.

“Yeah, I can bring something to eat, provided Jared promises to not comment on my skills.”

“Jared?” Jensen echoed again, this time with far more excitement than confusion in his tone.

“Well, yeah. That’s what, that’s what we’re supposed to do, right?”

“Danni,” Jensen began, “I don’t want you to just jump into things.”

“I don’t think I’m jumping.”

Jensen didn’t appear convinced. “Neither Jared nor I want you to feel like you have to do things to please us.”

“Well, great, but seriously. Wanting to please your boyfriends is a normal desire. Besides, I think we’ve done enough tiptoeing around. If we’re going to try, then we need to actually try.”

“I still say you missed your calling as a motivational speaker.”

“Yeah, sure. Tell that to the privates who had latrine duty.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Getting mauled by slobbering beasts was not on Danneel’s checklist for her date night. To be fair, Jared and Jensen had both warned her that Jared’s dogs were excitable. The drool was the factor that they had managed to overlook.

“Sorry,” a sheepish Jared mumbled as he tried to help Danneel wipe the sheen of dog spit from her slacks.

“They really like the whole cat smell thing,” Jensen added even though his husband’s glare clearly said that they had agreed not to mention that topic.

Of course, that sort of agreement couldn’t go unchallenged. “Cat smell?” Danneel queried sweetly.

Jensen beamed. “Yeah, Sadie and Harley are pretty much goners for your cats. They’re all over us every time we come home from a visit.”

“Jensen!” Jared hissed, “Stop making the kids look like blood thirsty mongrels!”

“The kids?” Danneel mouths at Jensen behind Jared’s back.

Jensen shrugs and says out loud, “What can I say? I’ve got a type.”

Jared looks confused, which makes Danneel feel better because so is she. “A type?” she asks.

“Dorky dog guy, crazy cat lady. I’m in love with the animal lovers,” Jensen said as he took Danneel’s carefully packet basket of food into the kitchen.

Jared huffed in exasperation for her. “Sometimes that man is unbearable. Then he walks away, and he’s always wearing goddamned jeans that cradle his ass and make me forget why I’m irked.”

Maybe it made Danneel as shallow as Jared was pretending to be, but she turned to catch the last glimpse of Jensen’s retreating form just because. Jared wasn’t lying about the view.

“His best jeans?” she guessed.

“Second best,” Jared answered, “he saves his best for when he’s sorry and wants to have makeup sex.”

“Nice,” she drawled.

“Depends on what you’re looking for,” Jared said noncommittally. “His best jeans are fantastic on him. Sometimes it’s for the best to hold out.”

“You’re a little bit of a pervert, you know that?”

Jared’s smile turned filthy, and Danneel rolled her eyes at him. “You’re twelve, aren’t you?”

“Well, I always did tell Jensen he was a cradle robber.”

“I heard that,” Jensen called out from the kitchen, “and if you don’t come here and help me serve, I’m donating my good jeans to charity!”

Jared gave his dogs a final pat and ordered them to go lay down. The fact that they obeyed actually stuns Danneel for a moment, but then Jared started leading her to the kitchen where a vintage, enamel top table has been set up with fine china and candles.

“We thought that this might be cozier than the dining room,” Jensen explained with a slight nod to the set-up.

Danneel had the feeling that ‘cozier’ was a code word for ‘less likely to freak Danneel out.’

“It looks lovely.”

“Oooh, beef!” Jensen exclaimed as he opened the travel casserole that Danneel brought with her. There was a small change that he started drooling.

Jared’s audible sigh was tinged with amusement as he popped the cork on the bottle of wine she also brought. She didn’t skimp on the budget, but the wine wasn’t the best out there. She didn’t bother buying the most expensive cut of beef for the roast because her crappy apartment over wasn’t the best for cooking, and she’d never be able to compete with Jared anyway.

“You can be so much like a caveman sometimes,” Jared lamented to his husband even as he grabbed a carrot out of the casserole before Jensen had finished putting serving utensils with it.

“Pot roast is important, Jared,” Jensen sniffed as he put it down in the center of the table. “You’re a heathen.”

“You’re both heathens,” Danneel corrected for them, “or do I have to pull my own chair out?” It was meant as a tease, but she’d never seen two grown men hustle so fast to give unnecessary assistance.

As Jared stood behind her holding her chair and Jensen in front of her with a napkin dangling uselessly from his fingertips, Danneel could see just how nervous the both of them were. “Seriously, relax,” she ordered even though their reactions started up the butterflies that she had managed to settle down before she came over for the night.

“Right,” Jensen mumbled as he awkwardly fumbled back to his chair. Jared fared a little better as he slid back into his own seat, but that could’ve been because he didn’t take Danneel’s napkin with him.

Jensen carved the roast; Jared poured the wine. Danneel played with her silverware, until she couldn’t take the silence and offered, “The wine is good.”

“Potatoes are tasty, good time of year for baby reds,” Jared commented.

“Mmhmmh,” Jensen grunted as he shoveled in another bite of beef. Danneel wasn’t sure that he’d even taken any vegetables with his slab of carrion.

“Jensen’s a meat man,” Jared said when he noticed Danneel eyeing his plate.

The choking sound that started coming from Jensen’s throat wasn’t nearly as comical at the look on Jared’s face when his brain caught up with his mouth. “I mean, I… Jensen likes boobs. I swear!”

Jensen’s coughed turned into a hack as he turned murderous eyes on his husband.

“Not, you know man-boobs, but boob, boobs. Not that he’d get upset if I got fat or anything, because he’d love me no matter what I looked like, but…”

"JARED!” Jensen rasped when he finally swallowed down his bite in an undignified gulp. “Just stop talking, man.”

Danneel couldn’t help but laugh. “I’m glad you like my boobs, Jensen.”

Jared let out a pitiful moan and hid his face behind his hands. “I told you this was going to happen,” he whined.

One of the hands Jensen had resting on the tabled top disappeared beneath. The heat of it skimmed over Danneel’s pantyhose covered leg before gripping the knee that was resting right next to hers. She could feel the flick of Jensen’s thumb as he rubbed it against Jared’s pant leg.

“Hey, it’s okay,” Jensen soothed.

“I’m gonna go let the dogs out,” Jared mumbled as he pushed away from the table. Jensen’s hand grazed Danneel’s thigh as it fell from its perch, but she didn’t get any of the thrill from it that she might have earlier.

“Jared,” Jensen called after him, but Jared kept walking, his broad shoulders hunched together.

“He was so damned nervous, wanted everything to be perfect for tonight,” Jensen told his cooling slab of roast. “He was also just positive that he was going to fuck everything up.”

“So do I get a say in any of this?” Danneel asked. “Because, correct me if I’m wrong here, but the two of you are fairly established in your relationships. The only person left to impress is me.”

“Not to Jared,” Jensen corrected her.

“I don’t understand.” The thought that she had come between them flies through her head like a bee. Old guilt and worry popped up with barely a hint of encouragement. Dannel was not the kind of person who ever wanted to be the other woman.

“You’re my idea, my crush,” Jensen explained. “Sometimes, when you fall in love it is rockets and sunshine. Sometimes it’s fluffy blankets and cuddling. Sometimes it’s holding on to each other because that crazy rocket love of yours has smashed into something, and you both want to strangle him.”

“People fall in love at different rates, and Jared knows that. But he has it in his head that he’s going to screw us up, that he’s going to chase you away from me,” Jensen paused and pursed his lips before continuing. “Maybe he’s right. Maybe the two of you won’t work out. There are times when people can’t get past the friends stage, and that’s okay.”

“Are you breaking up with me?” Danneel asked.

Jensen looked shocked by that question. “No, of course not, I just want you to know that it’s okay if you can’t, you know, with Jared. You and me, we sort of came out of nowhere, right? And that would’ve been good if we were in your world. But we’re in mine, and I’ve got Jared. And I loved him first.”

“I can’t believe I’m dating two fucking morons,” Danneel muttered as she shoved away from the table.

“Danneel?” Jensen queried.

“Jensen, just be quiet, eat the damn pot roast and quit being obnoxiously sincere and melodramatic. Save the heartfelt speeches for when one of you actually, monumentally fucks up, okay? I knew that Jared had foot in mouth disease before I ever had either of your tongues in my mouth, and I’m more than well informed about how really, really committed your relationship is.”

“I…”

“Shush,” she ordered, slicing another piece of roast and putting it on his plate for good measure. “I’m going to go find your idiot husband and talk some sense into him.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“So I’m an idiot, is what you’re saying?” Jared asked, all sincere eyes and hopeful voiced. There was the distinct possibility that Danneel was going to have to build an immunity to that look. It wouldn’t bode well if she couldn’t stay mad at him for long.

“Yes,” she settled on telling him before she gave into the urge to give him a hug.

“But, you don’t want to breakup with Jensen?” Jared asked in a much smaller voice.

“Oh my God,” Danneel huffed. “No, I don’t want to breakup with you or Jensen. Okay? I like the two of you for some unfathomable reason that isn’t related to your looks.”

“Is it my cooking?” Jared guessed. Danneel smacked him on the arm and walked back inside.

Jensen was standing by the door, clearly caught in the act of eavesdropping.

“I’m going to find your bedroom, and I’m going to go take my clothes off. Because I didn’t just spend most of my new paycheck on food, wine and lingerie to not finally get laid,” she told him.

“Ummm, does that mean that we’re invited?” Jensen dumbly replied.

“Masturbation isn’t getting laid, Ackles,” Danneel told him as she threw her blouse in his direction.

Finding the bedroom was a slightly harder task than she had originally envisioned it being. Jared and Jensen’s house was large, and between the spare bedrooms and studies and bizarrely large closets just hanging out in unsuspecting hallways, it took a while for her to find the right room.

Jensen was already sitting on the edge of the bed when she finally got there.

“How?” she demanded. She didn’t recall him sneaking past her.

“There are two doors,” Jensen explained with a gesture towards the other side of the room. “Jared liked the place for its quirky design.”

“Where’s Jared?”

“He’s brushing his teeth.”

“Pre-sex ritual?”

“Kind of,” Jensen admitted.

“Great, so should we just start getting naked or should we wait for him?”

“Get naked!” Jared’s voice rang out from behind yet another door in the room.

“En suite bathroom,” Jensen said as grabbed the hem of the Henley he was wearing and yanked it over his head.

“You can leave the lingerie on though, if you want. I mean, ‘cause you paid money for it,” Jared said as he came out of the bathroom.

“Smooth, Jared,” Jensen commented, but Danneel didn’t really hear him because Jared was very, very naked not a stitch of clothing in sight.

“I’m being accommodating,” Jared retorted as he crawled into the middle of the monstrously huge bed that took up space in the room, giving Danneel a very good view of his bare backside in the process. Then he flipped around as he crashed down on his back giving her an even better view.

Jensen noticed where her eyes went, and he smirked. “I know,” was all he said.

“Less leering, more nakedness so I can join in,” Jared complained.

“Yeah, Yeah,” Jensen muttered as he stood up and started shoving his jeans down over his hips.

“Hey, wait. Did you put the leftovers away?” Jared asked.

“Yes,” Jensen said as he hopped around trying to disentangle his foot from the leg of his pants.

“Are you sure?”

“Yes.”

“It’s just that there are onions in the pot roast,” Jared said.

Jensen looked towards the ceiling before saying, “I’ll go double check,” and walking out of the room clad in nothing buy a pair of black boxer briefs and one white sock.

“Married people sex,” Danneel muttered to herself as she kicked out of her heels and shimmied out of her skirt. The pantyhose were a bitch to roll down, but when she finally got them off, it didn’t look like Jared minded the show. He wasn’t touching himself, but his cock was over half hard, and his eyes were a little less focused than they were before.

“Come over here,” he ordered.

“Shouldn’t we wait for Jensen?”

“Oh, trust me, he’ll enjoy the view when he gets back,” Jared almost purred as he stretched his body out further, making hard earned gym muscles ripple.

“Show off,” she said as she crawled onto the bed next to him, reaching out to touch the flexing muscles.

“Mmm,” Jared agreed as he tugged her over to straddle him.

It wasn’t the first time that she had touched Jared. They’d kissed a few times before, and they’d cuddled together while watching television at her apartment. But the amount of heat he put off on those occasions seemed like nothing to the bare skin pressing against the inside of her thighs.

“Well, hello there,” Jensen’s voice was gravelly and low when he came back in the room, the bed dipping beneath his weight.

Danneel turned her head to look at him, and wasn’t all that surprised to see that he’d lost his underwear and remaining sock during his trip back from the kitchen.

“I like the panties,” Jensen growled as he slid his finger under the upper band of her thong.

Jared’s hands slid up her sides to cup her breasts. “I think the whole outfit is nice,” he said as he gently squeezed, “would be a shame to mess it all up.”

“You have no patience,” Jensen chided, still all sex voice as his hands traveled down Danneel’s thighs and off her body, only for one to move around to stroke at Jared’s erection.

Danneel could feel all of Jared’s muscles clench even as he opened his mouth to let out a little grunt of pleasure. Her position to see what was happening was poor, but she could see enough to know that Jared’s cock was starting to leak, and that it was getting on Jensen’s hand.

Jared’s hands slipped down to grab her hips, and pulled her forward. The movement caused the back of Jensen’s knuckles brush against her clothed mound in a teasing motion.

“Patience is overrated,” Danneel said as she pushed Jensen’s hand away and ground her pelvis down on Jared’s cock, trapping it between the sating of her underwear and his own stomach. Jared’s hands gripped her hips tighter as he bucked up, pushing his cock harder against her pussy, giving her something more substantial to rub against.

Next to her, Jensen’s breaths got heavier, she could feel his gaze as he watched the both of them and the weight of it made her shiver. In the satin confines of her bra, her nipples tightened and pushed against the lining, teasing them to even harder points.

Danneel didn’t know which one of them she wanted to kiss more in that moment, so she decided she shouldn’t have to choose, “Kiss him for me,” she whispered to Jensen as she reached behind her back to undo her bra hooks.

Jensen didn’t hesitate dipping his head down and pulling Jared’s head to the right angel for a kiss. It was different from the way he kissed her. Jared’s mouth was bigger, and they’d been at this a lot longer, but the tenderness behind the action was the same. Jensen was a man of restraint; he didn’t kiss to bruise.

Danneel’s breasts popped free, and she almost instantly had four eyes looking at them. “Naughty boys kissing with your eyes open?” she teased as she threw her bra onto the floor.

“Very naughty,” Jared agreed, thrusting his hips up to remind her just exactly what she was sitting on.

Jensen’s answer was less verbal as he leaned forward and pulled one of her nipples into his mouth, suckling on it with dedicated intensity.

“Shit,” Jared groaned, and Danneel could sympathize with him. She curled her fingers into Jensen’s hair as she started rubbing against Jared again. Her wetness was already leaking through her panties, slicking the movements.

“Stop,” Jared gasped, “condom,” he ordered when both Jensen and Danneel froze above him.

Danneel swung off Jared. She had started up her broth control regimen when they started dating, but her old drug wasn’t cleared for use in Trivan. It was unlikely that she would get pregnant, but her doctor hadn’t quite regulated the dosage yet.

“Condom,” Jared repeated again as he struggled upwards to paw at the nightstand drawer. There were more bottles of lube in there than Danneel strictly wanted to think about.

“Jared likes to experiment,” Jensen murmured as he pressed up against her back, “always on a quest for the next best lube.”

Jensen’s hands slid up her stomach to cup both of her breasts and rub at the nipples with his thumbs. Sucking, wet kisses started pressing against her neck, and Danneel tried not to ponder whether or not she owned a turtleneck to cover the hickeys Jensen was giving her.

A brand new box of condoms plopped onto the bed next to them along with a bottle of lube. Jensen laughed into Danneel’s neck.

“You didn’t even unwrap the box yet?” Jensen asked.

“At least I remembered to buy them,” Jared griped as he tore at the cellophane covering the thin cardboard walls.

Jensen didn’t respond, just slid his fingers inside of Danneel’s panties and started stroking around her clit, testing her sensitivities slicking his fingers with her wetness.

“Dude, not making this easy,” Jared panted as his eyes fixated on where Jensen’s hand was.

“Mmmm?” Jensen sounded completely unconcerned as he pushed a finger inside of Danneel.

Instinctively, she clenched down on it. It felt good to have something other than her own fingers inside of her body. Her vibrator hadn’t been on her must pack list, and new one wasn’t exactly a priority. But, damn, Jensen’s fingers shouldn’t feel that good.

“Oh, that is it,” Jared growled as he literally tore the condom box open, causing strips of condoms to fall all over the bed.

Instead of joining Jensen and his groping hand, Jared clambered over and bent down to kiss Danneel. His palms cradled her face, and his hair fell forward like a curtain blocking out the rest of the world.

Instinctively, she leaned forward and wrapped her arms around his shoulders, pressing her breasts against his chest. His chest hairs tickled against her nipples, and Jensen slid another finger inside of her as he pushed harder against her back.

Danneel was aware that she was moaning into Jared’s mouth even as she clenched down on Jensen’s intruding fingers. She could feel Jensen’s cock leaving trickles of precome against her spine while Jared’s dribbled onto her stomach, and it gave her a dirty sort of thrill to have two cocks desperate for her.

Local mores be damned, if she wanted to find it kinky that was her own business.

“I want to watch Jensen fuck you,” Jared whispered against her mouth when he pulled away from their kiss. Jensen whimpered into her neck at the request, and slid a third finger in, stretching at her walls.

“Yeah, yeah,” she said, trying to ignore the was that Jensen kept pressing his palm down on her mound as he finger fucked her, pressing against her clitoris with intent, but not offering completion.

“Better get these off then,” Jensen suggested as he pulled his fingers free and tugged at her panties.

Danneel swatted both his and Jared’s hands away, opting instead to hook her thumbs into the elastic and pull them down herself. When they reached her knees, she rolled onto her back so that she could finish pulling them off, leaving her as naked as her lovers.

“God, it’s been forever since I’ve gone down on a girl,” Jared sounded almost like he was reminiscing, and Danneel had to fight the blush that rose up at his words.

“I know, man. I know,” Jensen commiserated.

“Are you seriously having this conversation right now?” Danneel demanded. “Because I love oral, I do. But I’m kind of ready now for the main event.”

“Pushy,” Jensen muttered.

Jared laughed as he settled down on his side next to Danneel. “Serves you right.”

“Hmph,” Jensen grunted, though whether it was because he was rolling a thin latex condom over his dick or because of Jared’s barb, Danneel couldn’t tell.

The cap on the lube bottle clicked open, and Jensen rubbed a dollop of it over his latex covering, slicking up the outside as much as the prelubed inside.

“Been a while since I’ve seen that,” Jared said.

Jensen gave him a fond smile that had more meaning behind it than Danneel could identify. Before she could ask about it, Jensen was kneed his way between her legs.

“This okay?” he asked as she spread her thighs to accommodate him.

“Missionary is fine, Jensen,” she assured him. Jensen was gentle as he pushed inside, and she was grateful for it. Not just because it had been a while since she’d had sex, but because there was another set of eyes watching them. The last thing she wanted was to freak Jared out because something hurt.

irst times couldn’t ever be perfect, but she wanted them all to have a good memory of theirs.

“Fuck,” Jensen whimpered when he finally thrust all the way inside. Danneel could echo that sentiment.

“God,” she whispered back, wrapping her legs around his waist. The movement caused him to penetrate just a hair deeper, and Jensen groaned again.

Jensen kissed her as he pulled out and thrust back in. His tongue filled her mouth, as his hips tilted and changed tempo, trying to find the right angle and speed for fucking. It felt good, scary and new like all of Danneel’s first times had been.

The weight on top of her was warm and secure, and Jensen’s scent was strong and masculine. His distracted attention between pleasing her and pleasing himself was adorable to watch play out across his features as he kept dragging himself back on task.

What wasn’t familiar was the odd additional caress or kiss pressed against her skin. Jared’s fingers would skate down her arm or his lips would press against Jensen’s shoulder. Nothing more than gentle reminders that he was there with them, together with them.

Then Jensen finally grabbed Danneel’s hips, tilted them up and started pounding. It felt good, really good. They were grunters, the two of them. Whining and keening and making obnoxious sex noises while Jared watched on.

Then Jensen broke form with a breathless, “Jay, help me out here.”

Seconds later, Jared’s long fingers were sliding over Danneel’s clitoris, stroking down around the point where Jensen was pistoning into her before sliding back up and rubbing firm circles around the small nub.

“Come on, Baby,” Jared encouraged. Danneel didn’t know if he was talking to her or Jensen, but she followed his encouragement anyway, crying out, clamping her thighs down on Jensen’s waist even as her walls contracted around his cock.

“Hng,” was the sound that Jensen made when he followed her a few thrusts later, quickly grabbing the base of his condom and pulling out before he had a chance to collapse on top of her.

“Such a gentleman,” she slurred fondly.

“Jensen,” Jared’s voice sounded wrecked and needy as he reached across Danneel’s satiated body to paw at his husband.

Looking down, Danneel could see that his cock was almost purple it was so needy. “Hey,” she said softly, “I can take care of that for you.”

“Really?” Jared sounded like he didn’t believe she’d even think about it. She couldn’t have that, now could she?

“Of course, just, I’m not sure I can move all that well right now. You might need to do most of the work.”

Jared laughed and smiled even though he looked like he was going to cry if he didn’t get to come soon. “Yeah, I know. Jensen’s a freaking energy vampire.”

Jensen snorted next to them and the crinkling of a condom packet opening accompanied his noise. “Bring your pecker over here, big boy,” he said.

The way that Jensen’s hands rolled the condom down Jared’s length was transfixing. It was tender and knowing, and the way that Jared pushed into the touch made something inside or Danneel ache. It wasn’t jealousy, not quite. It was more of a longing to know somebody so well, know exactly how to touch them and how they wanted to be touched.

Jared kissed Jensen sweetly before he slipped between Danneel’s thighs and gave her the exact same kiss. His cock wasn’t bigger than Jensen’s, not really. A little longer maybe, but the size difference wasn’t noticeable as he slid inside.

His technique though, that was completely different. His tempo felt like he had a metronome built into his hips, a steady, swiveling thrum that was completely different from Jensen’s constantly shifting speed. And his sex noises were all bitten off, “Dannis” and “Jensens” that made the whole act seem that much more intimate.

It didn’t take long for him to come, pushing in hard at the last second and moaning so long that one of the dogs started howling in the living room.

Instead of laughing at the unwelcome chorus that Jared’s vocalizations caused, Danneel pulled him close and kissed him before she let him pull out. She made certain it was thorough, and just a hair longer than the kiss she’d given Jensen.

“I’ll go get a washcloth,” Jensen said as he pulled Jared’s condom off.

“Full service,” Jared said at Danneel’s surprised look. “Jensen has a thing for my dick.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When Danneel woke up the next morning, Jensen was still snoring away, dead to the world. The place that Jared had occupied was cold to the touch, but she could hear pots and pans rattling in the kitchen and the aroma of coffee wafting through the air. She borrowed a shirt out of Jensen’s closet and a pair of socks out of what appeared to be Jared’s sock drawer given how large they were on her feet.

“Coffee,” she demanded when she shuffled out to join Jared in the kitchen.

“Did Jensen teach you that one?” Jared asked.

“Boot camp,” Danneel answered, “now coffee.”

“Pushy, pushy,” Jared teased as he pulled a cup out of the cupboard and poured her requested drug.

“Mmm, you’re an angel,” she said as she stretched up to give him a peck on his cheek.

Jared took her coffee from her hands and put it on the counter. Before her sleep addled brain could for a protest, followed suit and picked her up and placed her on the counter, sliding into her space to kiss her, morning breath and all.

“Not an angel,” he murmured against her lips.

“Definitely not,” she agreed, “but I think I’ll keep you anyway.”

Jared smiled. “Welcome to our menagerie.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For those of you who might be interested in the long-drawn out saga of this fic. I originally was working on a Sam/Dean + OFC for this. The OFC inherited a house, a fortune and a library full of books from her ‘creepy’ uncle who was a hunter resource. Said clueless girl gets rescued from a bad thing by Sam and Dean. She sleeps with Dean.
> 
> Later, Dean gets injured, and Sam drags him to her house to be safe while he recuperates. She ends up sleeping with Sam, who is oddly hot and bothered when she tries to reason that it is wrong for her to actually have flings with siblings. The light dawns that maybe Sam is a little too eager to be where his brother has been.
> 
> And… well let’s just say there was going to be happy threesomings with the boys driving off in the Impala, but stopping by on occasion so they could all be together.
> 
> I scrapped that plan about a two thousand words in and went with DJJ instead. Where Jensen was the fleeing soldier with his rescued kitties, Danneel was the volunteer doctor at the local shelter who meets him, and Jared was her husband the chef. Danneel and Jared were dumped by their fiancée. Apparently this fiancée hated super nice people, because Danneel and Jared let out their garage apartment to down-on-his-luck refugee Jensen and his cats.
> 
> There were going to be dog-cat hijinks, and longing looks as Jensen kept spending more and more time at the main house. Only the plotting I was doing felt kind of static to me. I kept running through the concept until I decided to make Danneel the soldier, made J2 her employers instead of landlords, and the rest is the fic.


End file.
